Hamas slams Israel’s closure of Ibrahimi Mosque during Jewish holidays

Hamas yesterday slammed Israel’s closure of the Ibrahimi Mosque in occupied Hebron from today to Sunday as settlers in the area celebrate Jewish holidays.

The movement said in a statement that the Zionist extremists’ desecration of the holy mosque; a regular ritual during such they dance and hold Jewish prayers within it, is a “crime and a blatant attack on a purely Islamic mosque, a violation of its sanctity and holiness, and an insistence on restricting Muslims’ right to practise their religious rituals in it.”

“This repeated closure of the Ibrahimi Mosque, the continued prevention of the dawn call to prayer in it, and the imposition of retaliatory measures against the residents of nearby neighbourhoods, are nothing but blatant Zionist policies revealing their disregard for all international norms, laws and regulations,” it said.

Hamas called on the international community to take action and measures against the Israeli occupation government to stop its aggression against Palestinian land, people and their holy sites.

The Israeli occupation has prevented the dawn call to prayer in the Ibrahimi Mosque for the 22nd consecutive day.

After the massacre of 29 Palestinian worshippers in 1994 inside the mosque by Jewish extremist settler, Baruch Goldstein, Israeli authorities divided the mosque complex between Muslim and Jewish worshippers. However occupation forces regularly close the mosque off to Muslim worshippers in order to allow settlers to mark festivals.

Hebron is home to roughly 160,000 Palestinian Muslims and about 500 hardline Jewish settlers who live illegally in a series of Jewish-only enclaves heavily guarded by Israeli occupation forces.

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